Gareth Bale Can Only Improve, Says Ancelotti, But Will Miss Out On World Cup

Gareth Bale, Real Madrid’s not-so-secret weapon, had a great first season in the Spanish league and manager Carlo Ancelotti says he can only improve, but unfortunately, he will miss out on the World Cup.

It’s not easy to move from one league to another, even if it is within Europe. All leagues are different and players that transfer know this very well; it takes time to adjust.

In the case of Welsh star Gareth Bale, it didn’t take long to get going, after a rather shaky start of the season as one of the newbies at Real Madrid; of course, he had a great mentor in teammate Cristiano Ronaldo — also a transfer from the Premier League — who not only showed him the ropes on the field, but was a great help off the field too.

Last Saturday, Bale scored a critical goal in the UEFA Champions League final and added his name to the history books, when Real Madrid won “La Decima,” their 10th title, 4-1 against inner city rivals Atletico Madrid. He also scored the lone goal in the Copa del Rey final against arch rivals Barcelona.

Through the last part of the season, Bale started to look more and more comfortable and had to step it up when Ronaldo was sidelined, first with a four-game suspension and then with injury. The Welshman and Benzama took the reins of Real’s offense and “Los Blancos” were able to stay in contention for La Liga’s top spot almost until the last week of the season.

Bale — the most expensive player in the world — came to Real Madrid from Tottenham for approximately $143 million this past summer and many were skeptical if he was truly worth that much money; for Ancelotti, the cash was well spent:

“All season Gareth has been good and he will be better next year,” the Italian manager said as the team waited to celebrate their historic UCL win with their fans.

For Gareth Bale, winning “La Decima” with his new club was a dream come true and scoring his 22nd goal this season to secure the victory, after missing three clear opportunities in regular time, made it even sweeter.

“When you’re a little boy you dream of lifting the Champions League, and to lift the 10th one for Real Madrid is special. It’s one that will go down in history.”

“We always were praying that we’d get a goal, and it was obviously great that we did. We left it late, but it made it that extra bit more special.”

But even with all these accolades to his name, Gareth Bale will miss out the World Cup; since Wales did not qualify, the world will not be able to appreciate one of the biggest names in football next month, which is really too bad.

[Image via Gareth Bale/Twitter]